Los Angeles, California
Chicken Boy
The so-called "Statue of Liberty of Los Angeles" is on a one mutant mission to keep LA weird.
Standing sentinel over the City of Angels is a feathery guardian whose precious yellow bucket is always at the ready whenever visitors look up in search of an oddity. This hero’s name is Chicken Boy.
Part man, part chicken, the 22-foot-tall fiberglass figure stands atop the Future Studio Design & Gallery located along a stretch of Route 66. The amalgamated mascot was originally one of the once-ubiquitous Muffler Men which populated the famed Mother Road, but it was modified to advertise a fried chicken restaurant that shared his name.
Once the restaurant closed in 1983, the avian hybrid’s future was uncertain, but thanks to the efforts of local artist Amy Inouye, who had long admired the whimsical chimera, the fiberglass figure was saved from the scrapheap. After much lobbying and an attempt to have the figure entered into a museum, Inouye was finally granted custody, and the homeless Chicken Boy was placed in storage, awaiting a new home. Unfortunately a suitable place was not found for two decades.
In 2007, Chicken Boy’s long dark ended when he was placed in his current location with the help of volunteers and donations. Today he is still a celebrated piece of LA strangeness that is beloved by many. In fact September 1st has even been declared to be his birthday in case anyone wants to throw him a party.
